The Best iOS 6 Features Nobody’s Talking About

The Best iOS 6 Features Nobody’s Talking About


iOS 6, your cup runneth over. The new future brain of your iPhone and iPad is lovelier than ever, and chock full of new features worth gabbing about. But what about the unsung stuff? Here are the coolest quiet additions.


Wake up to a song

Marimba gets a little stale. Now you can select any song on your iPhone as an alarm from within the Clock app. Ride of the Valkyries works well, as does anything by Waka Flocka. Beach House and Fiona Apple aren’t quite as conducive to getting your arse out of bed. There have been apps offering this for years, but now it’s built in, and built in is better. [clear]


Easier, prettier sharing menu

The old one was ugly! It was just a drab list! Now, if you want to share that photo you just took, you’re presented with a neat graphical grid of services — email, Facebook, Twitter, SMS — your pick. It’s easier to scan, ergo easier to share. [clear]


Power privacy

This one’s simple: there’s now a list in settings of all the apps that have requested access to your location, contacts, calendars, reminders and photos. Turn access on or off as you see fit. [clear]


Remodelled iTunes/App Stores

Talk about stale! The stores on your phone were never easy to get around: too many lists, too many sections, too much scrolling. In iOS 6 they get a chic makeover, highly reminiscent of the glamorous Apple TV storefront. The new stores also add clever horizontal scrolling through lists and categories, which is less of a pain and allows for a more digestible spread of information on a non-television screen. Featured albums, apps, videos and the like are all sorted together with big graphics. It won’t cost you any less, but you’ll spend less sanity on your downloads. [clear]


Your (weird) words saved in the cloud


If you repeatedly use a word that’s not in Apple’s standard dictionary — like “scootbooty” — your phone will stop trying to correct you and just add it to the list of real words. Now this list of all your slang, inside jokes and abbreviations will be stored on iCloud forever, across devices. [clear]


A modern iPod

The Music app ditched its old skin for a darker, simpler, monochromatic getup. It functions the same way but steps closer to OS X in appearance. Maybe you’ll like it more than the old look — if not, you’ll quickly forget what the old one look looked like anyway. [clear]


New app markers

New apps are marked with a blue ribbon to designate their freshness. [clear]


iPad clock

The iPad now has a new Clock app of its own.[clear]


Noticed any other goodies that have been flying under the radar? Let us know in the comments!


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